"Tūhoe is a relatively young population with high levels of unemployment, welfare dependency and low incomes....
In 2011 the Crown entered into a relationship agreement with Tūhoe in which it acknowledged the mana motuhake of Tūhoe and its aspirations to self-govern. Tūhoe have their aspirations to become independent of the Government, generate its own revenue and become self-sustaining. MSD has asked whether or not it is feasible to transfer a portion of the Crown’s liability to Tūhoe."In plain English, can benefits be paid forward in a lump sum to enable Tuhoe to establish employment initiatives and their own social services?
Tuhoe has high forward liability:
"29 per cent of Tūhoe received a benefit payment (unemployment, sickness, invalid, or
domestic purposes) as a source of income at some time in the 12 months prior to the 2013 Census, compared to 24 percent of the Maori population, and 10 per cent of the total"
The above shows benefit receipt for the general population (col 1), then Maori, then Tuhoe.
That's snapshot or point-tin-time data. Because young parenting and youth unemployment are high, the length of time spent on benefits is greater.
The research considers international attempts at self governance and suggests:
"Experience shows that a goal of profitable business ventures is the most effective way to increase employment opportunities in the long-run."It considers some NZ initiatives and describes them a s a "mixed bag". However the "risks" are less than the "lost opportunity".
The rest is essentially suggested scenarios for transferring the "liability" (cash resource) to Tuhoe.
Apparently MSD are in the process of assessing the actuarial liability of Tuhoe.
What does Tuhoe want to do with the funds?
"With the return of Te Urewera together with Tūhoe current land interest brings land value in excess of 300,000 acres. Tūhoe have identified they are capable of developing a range of industries that will create employment opportunities and thereby reduce welfare
dependencies. The industries they have identified as possible within their rohe include the following:
• Pharmaceuticals
• Science and research
• Eco-tourism
• Food and technology
• Horticulture
• Agriculture
• Biodiversity
• Culture & Heritage.
Tūhoe have also identified a number of social sector initiatives such as:
• Development of charter schools that embrace tribal tikanga, set up in the rohe withIt's a reasonably lengthy document so take my speed-read summary on trust.
consolidated governance arrangements.
• Health centres in each of the four Tūhoe settlements that meet the needs of the rohe’s
population including mental health and addiction."
But I am left with questions. If it happened for Tuhoe, wouldn't it conceivably have to happen for any other tribe, group, or even individual, with a (expected) forward liability?
And I wonder what Savage would have made of the evolution of social security? I don't imagine his vision of providing income security to the poorest, most disadvantaged in the here and now extended to calculating forward lifetimes of income dependency to be paid in advance.
Then again, the dependency is real and if Tuhoe can do a better job of reducing it than the state, why not?
And a pointless, after the fact final question. Wouldn't it have been better if the dependency hadn't been enabled in the first place?
8 comments:
And will this be a "full and final" payment or will it be "adjusted upwards" should other tribes gouge out a better deal?
Probably both.
By inference, you suggest Tuhoe might do a better job of handling state dependency.
Tuhoe have stated that they want self governance with their own income streams.
However, dependency on the state would probably continue to eternity.
In addition, any move to allow self governance is a step toward a separate nation.
A separate nation can not work inside another.
I can't even believe we're having this discussion, everyone knows that if maori are given money to run their own affairs it will end in tears, the money at best will be wasted, but more likely stolen by one or more of the tribe, then the hands will go out for more because Whitey didn't ensure it was used wisely. Then every made up tribe will be on the band wagon (or in this case "The gravy train") to have their Billions paid forward, then they'll waste or steal it and on it goes like perpetual motion, it will never end and the country will, as it is already, be descending into bankruptcy.
We don't have enough money in the coffers for hip replacements and the like for those that have worked hard and paid taxes all their lives, but there always seems to be Millions available for any bogus maori claims. Funny that!!
If tuhoe think they can run businesses like agriculture why are they not doing it now? they have thousands of people up there doing nothing, thousands of acres of land to develop and millions of dollars through bogus claims, yet they're all standing around with their hands in their pockets waiting for Whitey to do it for them.
It's time to stop this on going joke about maori being indigenous, they were nothing but a bunch of cannibalistic thugs waging war on anyone that crossed their paths, stealing and murdering and basically wiping themselves out until the settlers arrived and saved them from certain extinction. No thanks has ever been given for dragging them into civilisation, no thanks for the infrastructure we've provided, no thanks for the medical care we provide, nor the housing, roading or social welfare, of which they are the major benefactors.
I for one would love to know what their contingency plan is once the money has gone, and we all know that it will go down the toilet quicker than they can say "Give us some more". If this goes ahead we're stuffed.
This is a discussion on how to structure societies. The past, and present, gives us huge evidence that tribalism is, or should be, a way of the past. It is a division of people under many guises, and the more separate the people seem, the more backward, and in the end, violent , the societies become. Recent evidence is the extreme tribal violence in the Balkans, Rwanda, now the Middle East. So, to support the backward step into tribalism, is to risk that happening here(the division, then violence). In the 21st Century, we are advanced enough to know that the only safe way forward is one people, one nation, one law. With the ocean as our total boundary, we in NZ have a unique possibility to go forward without the imposed tribal pressures from immigration that is being presently felt elsewhere. If the need to feel comfortable in a group of like people attracts any group, that is understandable, and the more insecure people are, the more they need to belong to a group/tribe. So that should not be opposed. BUT it should be under one law, one nation. Separating out payments that are universally funded by all tax payers, for one special group, is just asking for trouble. AND how on earth can an actuary calculate the future liability? If the lump sum payment succeeds, then the liability would have been low, if it fails, as someone else has noted, the calculation will have to go out to infinity. What checks and balances could be put in place, to ensure that the investment by the rest of us is not wasted, as so much has been already? Would Tuhoe tolerate such checks and balances being imposed on them? I think not.....
Good on you Stevo. You see it exactly the way I see it.
NZ is sliding to third world status; in many ways, we are there already. Maori have hundreds of race based privileges that me and my family are not entitled to (but my taxes have probably paid for). We are victims of racist discrimination every single day of our lives. The Tuhoe mafia never signed the treaty, and even if they did, it promised no special treatment. I just wish the corrupt Finlayson could be replaced with someone who had a clue. Derejk
Ever since the start of handing out NZ tax payers hard earned money to Maori up to 2012 the total given came to $36 Billion NZ Dollars that amount would rebuild Christchurch city & iwi are still requesting for more, why? The whole system was meant to be designed as a trickle down system and yet the average native New Zealander has yet to receive any of it, so who is creaming it? There should be enough revenue to support any Iwi claim so where is it all going?
Another point; one cannot run a country under separate rules / laws it never worked in the past and never will; there's is a bible quotation i.e. A COUNTRY WITH SEPARATE LAWS WILL CERTAINLY FAIL.
As with all Maori initiatives the money will disappear into a big black hole and it will be the fault of the 'Pakeha' government for not giving enough and the politicians will be seen to be making amends with more of our cash to show how progressive they are by appeasing lazy, thieving no-hopers with someone else's money. The treaty settlements project, if not already devoid of integrity and logic, descends into a further realm of absurdity when tribes like Tuhoe who were never actually signatories to the original document are now planning to use it to extort even more taxpayers cash when their 2014 settlement was supposed to be full and final.
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